After the temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the High Priest could no longer perform his annual Yom Kippur sacrifice. Nevertheless, the people of Israel continued to fast, and they continued to believe that God acted on this day to forgive, purify, and renew. They based their belief on the verse just quoted from Leviticus. They understood the verse not as a commandment telling Israel what it must do—“For on this day the High Priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you”—but as a promise of what God would do—“For on this day Hashem shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you.”

For Messianic Jews, Yom Kippur does point to an event in Jewish history beyond itself— it points to the event that governs all Jewish history both before and afterwards: the death and resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah. He is the goat who bears the sins of Israel and the world, the High Priest who ascends to the heavenly Holy of Holies, the sacrifice whose blood is presented before the One seated on the throne. The day of Yeshua’s Resurrection is Yom Kippur.

Israel remains a sinful people, as does the Church. Yet, God still loves Israel and the Church, and abides in their midst. Each bears witness, in its own way, to God’s self-revelation and commitment to the world. To do so, each needs forgiveness, purification, and renewal.

Messianic Jews are those from the house of Israel who know that God does it on Yom Kippur through the Risen Messiah, now hidden from Israel’s sight behind the veil of the heavenly temple. With Yeshua the High Priest, we enter the heavenly Holy of Holies and intercede for our people—for its forgiveness, purification, renewal.

But we also need this renewal ourselves. We come before Hashem with our faith that Yom Kippur is not fundamentally about what we do, but about what God does with us and in us. We trust God to forgive, purify, and renew—and we believe that God does it on Yom Kippur!